The world has become so complex that the balance between specialisation and integral culture is beginning to shift.
Anwar Ibrahim at CTCORP Leadership Forum Jakarta 2023
Anwar Ibrahim has done it again, with a plot line of citations that managed to shock us and inspire us to dive deep into his speeches. He quoted Ortega during his speech a few days ago, which made me wonder more about what was explained in Ortega’s book.
Ortega forewarned us about this in his book The Revolt of the Masses. He predicted that as specialisation takes hold, a new type of person will emerge: one who is unable to integrate their work with the larger culture around them.
And it’s happening. We’ll see a new type of person emerge in the next generation who isn’t fully integrated into their own lives—who can’t fit in with the world around them but also can’t fit into their own. They will be specialised individuals with no real sense of self-worth or identity outside of what they do at work or what they consume on television.
The wind blows south, and the wheat points south.
The man in the street is no longer a hero, but an object to be sold to advertisers and politicians. We spend our lives trying to meet a “standard” that is set for us by someone else, rather than pursuing what makes us unique. This means we are losing touch with our true selves, and it’s important we understand why this is happening so we can reverse it before it’s too late
